Cam Cole: Kings veteran Jeff Carter blossoms between youngsters

Cam Cole, Vancouver Sun columnist05.25.2014

Jeff Carter #77 of the Los Angeles Kings celebrates after he scores a second period goal against the Chicago Blackhawks in Game Three of the Western Conference Final during the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Staples Center on May 24, 2014 in Los Angeles.

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - He is the old goat between two kids, or so goes the joke about Jeff Carter.

But the reality, it seems, is that his young wingers, Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson, aren’t the only ones who have grown up as members of the L.A. Kings organization.

So has the 29-year-old Carter, as a hockey player and a person, blossoming at each step of the way since becoming a King and, perhaps equally, a Canadian Olympian.

"I know a lot of talk in this series has been about a player on their team and a player on our team," said L.A. head coach Darryl Sutter, speaking of the Chicago’s top centre, Jonathan Toews, and the Kings’ Anze Kopitar. “But Jeff Carter is just as important to our team as both of those players that everybody is talking about."

Lately, that’s been an understatement.

In four games, dating back to Game 7 of the Anaheim series, the Carter-Toffoli-Pearson line has scored nine goals and racked up 19 points. Carter alone had four goals and three assists in the Kings’ 6-2 and 4-3 victories over the Blackhawks in Games 2 and 3 of the Western Conference final, which L.A. leads 2-1.

And that offensive explosion is certain to be giving Hawks coach Joel Quenneville pause when he tries to decide how to take the Kings’ most potent weapons out of the equation as the series resumes Monday night at Staples Center.

Which line gets special treatment: Kopitar, Marian Gaborik and Dustin Brown, or Carter’s red-hot unit?

“I don’t know necessarily matching up,” Quenneville said Sunday. “They’ve been very effective. They’ve been dangerous, be it off the rush or in zone, they’ve scored some pivotal goals the last two games particularly.

“I think just about every one of our lines played against them throughout the game yesterday. I think you just got to be aware when they’re on the ice. They can all make plays.”

"We've been doing the things that we need to," Carter said. "Using our speed, getting pucks behind their D, being physical on their D. We create turnovers and we've been bearing down on our chances. That's what we need to do."

With Carter, the physical gifts were always there, in abundance.

On a 2005 Canadian world junior team that had Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf, Patrice Bergeron, Mike Richards and, up and down the roster, an amazing array of talent, Carter’s skill set was arguably the most eye-catching.

At the Olympics in Sochi, he not only played the 200-foot game Mike Babcock demanded, he played it at warp speed, separating himself from the best players in the world in a matter of a couple of strides --- an explosiveness that is still there at age 29, and continues to give NHL opponents fits.

He completely won the coaching staff’s trust in Sochi with his two-way game, and more than that, with Hockey Canada’s staff leaning on every member of the team to be ambassadors, Carter emerged from his brooding-recluse persona to be a pleasant, co-operative, insightful voice.

He just looks happier here than he ever seemed to be in Philadelphia or, briefly, Columbus. Success doesn’t hurt, of course --- the 2012 Stanley Cup validated a whole bunch of players on the Kings, including his fellow Flyers castoff Mike Richards, part of a purge of young players the Philly organization figured had to go to change the chemistry of the dressing room.

In L.A., both have been integral parts of Sutter’s team-is-all mandate: Richards accepting a multi-faceted role that, nonetheless, is based in fourth-line duty this season, and Carter flourishing once again in his natural spot at centre, on the secondary scoring line behind Kopitar’s big-name unit.

“it goes back to the confidence thing,” Richards said. “When you have confidence it just seems like the net gets bigger and when you don’t have confidence it feels like it shrinks a little bit. He’s always stepped up ever since I’ve known him in the playoffs.”

Richards isn’t sure Carter was a different player coming back from the Olympics, but that’s about the time --- combined with the trade deadline acquisition of Marian Gaborik --- that the Kings looked as though they had put the entire puzzle together.

“I think being in the center may help him a little bit just with getting more speed,” Richards said. “At key points in the game if we need momentum … it’s that line that’s giving it to us right now. Tenacious and the young legs and whatever it is, but they seem to have a lot of energy and as a team right now we’re feeding off that.”

With Toffoli, barely 22 years old, who has the natural scorer’s touch and a knack for finding open ice (“It’s something you can’t teach. That’s just hockey sense,” Richards said) and Pearson, 21, who has blistering speed and impressive tenacity, Carter’s line has been more than the Blackhawks have been able to handle.

Moving Carter back to centre from the wing was a decision Sutter made after the Olympics.

“It was clearly when Dean (Kings GM Lombardi) and I, during the break, went over a lot of video and talking about our team, not so much for this year but going forward. How it was going to set up,” Sutter said.

“As a coach, you always think, ‘Now, now now.’ But just look at it differently, how the young guys, Tyler and Tanner, are going to play here. Because at that point, they were still guys who couldn’t be here because of the (salary) cap.

“Jeff, we like him at centre. Even when we got him we could see him as a centre. We weren’t in that position yet, on the wings, to do that.”

Plus, Sutter said, once Carter was moved to the middle, it gave the Kings a deep and gifted lineup of centres: Kopitar and Carter on the main offensive lines, Jarrett Stoll, just about the perfect defensive pivot and faceoff man, and Richards anchoring the fourth line.

Nobody else in the league has that kind of battle-tested depth at centre ice; apparently not the Blackhawks, anyway, who had great leadership but precious little followership Saturday.

Quenneville’s lineup had Toews going on, but not many others. Indeed, when he was asked Sunday to address “Patrick’s struggles,” he replied, with no hint of sarcasm, “Which one?” Sharp or Kane, he meant.

Either. Both.

It’s not a problem the Kings were facing, heading into Game 4, but it’s one Quenneville needs to fix before the series gets out of hand. It’s only 2-1 right now, still plenty of time.

“Three of the last five series we’ve been in the same scenario down, 2-1 This makes it four out of six,” said the Hawks coach. “You’ve got to commend the guys, how they’ve overcome this type of adversity and this type of challenge. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the setting, they rise to that occasion.

“We’re playing a very good team, better than the team we saw last year. It’s going to take more. It’s going to take everybody. We’re going to need everybody tomorrow night — a big effort, a big game.”

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